Joni Mabe in her hand made shrine to Elvis dress. She orignally made the dress to wear to graceland where she claims she found a toe nail clipping of Elvis.

Dot Paul/Staff

In a way, it's all come to an end for Athens artist Joni Mabe. Elvis has finally found his home, safe in Cornelia with her.

And if Elvis is king of the old house at 271 Foreacre St., which for 60 years served as her great-grandparents' and grandmother's boardinghouse, then Mabe is most certainly queen.

See, for 14 years Mabe traveled the world with her ''Joni Mabe's Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis.'' Some 22 crates followed her across the globe to sites where she'd spend 14 days just to unpack the literally tens of thousands of pieces of her Elvis artwork and memorabilia, and hang everything just so.

But today she's found a home for her exhibition, a special place where as a girl, she'd venture over to visit her grandmother after school, snack on a piece of poundcake and giggle at some of the eccentric personalities that boarded under her grandmother's roof.

As her grandmother aged and could no longer run the boardinghouse, it eventually came to sit empty for nearly a decade and fell into disrepair. Mabe was distraught when she learned it had been sold to the local hardware store, and plans were in the works to destroy the house to make room for a parking lot.

For 14 years, Mabe traveled the world with her "Joni Mabe's Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis." It takes 14 days just to unpack and set up the exhibit.

Dot Paul/Staff

Fortunately for her and her family (and the town, for that matter), and thanks to small-town ethics, Mabe was able to buy it back. Then she got to work.

It took her and her parents six years, some hefty bank loans and a maxed-out credit card or two just to restore the house. Then, culled from her love for her family and her ability to take a huge and sprawling collection of stuff and transform it into a fascinating visual tour (just as she did for so many years with her traveling Elvis exhibit), Mabe knew what to do. She pored through closets and shoeboxes, even through the red clay in the back yard, and put together a museum filled with historical documents and artifacts, tracing the home's boardinghouse years.

Called the Loudermilk (after her great-grandparents) Boarding House Museum, it's not only a loving tribute, it's the only museum in Cornelia, and one of only three registered historic landmarks in the little town, Mabe says. But it's far more than just a house museum.

While the basement-level floor, as well as one room on the first floor, serve as the museum, there's quite another environment to be experienced in the rest of the house.

Climbing the worn floorboards up the gently sloping flight of steps, it doesn't take long to realize there's a kingdom upstairs -- yes, the kingdom of Elvis resides on the second floor.

Joni Mabe's shrine to Elvis in her great grandparents Cornelia home.

Dot Paul/Staff

From floor to ceiling in the house's four bedrooms and wide hallway, the walls are covered with Elvis. Photographs of Elvis, paintings of Elvis, tabloids about Elvis, autographed pictures of Elvis impersonators, Elvis T-shirts, buttons, articles telling about other crazed Elvis fans and, of course, Mabe's own glitter-covered artwork depicting Elvis are all neatly arranged on every inch of the walls.

Two rooms feature beds covered with Elvis pillows and bedspreads while Elvis-bust lamps cast a sultry glow into the air. Forms show off Elvis-covered dresses and jackets made by Mabe, while Elvis' unmistakable voice swells out of a speaker nearby.

Not surprisingly, surrounded by this plethora oozing of everything Elvis ­ from the everyday to the peculiar ­ Mabe cites P.T. Barnum as one of her idols.

In a hallway display case are her true triumphs -- the real pieces of Elvis to which she lays claim. There's the maybe-Elvis-toenail-clipping, which she found lodged in a fiber of the shag carpet upon her premier pilgrimage to Graceland, and the for-sure Elvis wart she says she purchased for an undisclosed price from the very physician who removed the blemish in 1957.

A bit bizarre, perhaps. But for Mabe, it's just her everyday life. She doesn't gush with words about Elvis -- she lets her collection do that for her.

Mabe began collecting Elvis stuff the day the King died in 1977. A few years later, she made Elvis the subject of her thesis when she was earning her master of fine arts degree from the University of Georgia in 1983.

''It's about sex and death, and everything in between -- religion and sin,'' she explained in her oral presentation, she now recalls with a laugh.

At the opening for her exhibit at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, Mabe souped up the party with a juke box full of Elvis songs and a keg of beer.

''Those (art openings) can get real stuffy,'' she says. ''I just wanted everybody to have a good time.''

Several years later, she began touring with an exhibit of work called ''The Traveling Museum of Obsessions, Personalities and Oddities,'' with memorabilia along with her own creations centered around stars like Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams Sr. Elvis was in there too. But after a while, the exhibit was being overtaken by her fast-growing collection of Elvis memorabilia, so she made the King the subject of his own exhibit, and the response was phenomenal wherever she went.

''Elvis has taken me a lot of places,'' she says, adding that she's encountered tons of fans along the way.

Though there's no official count that hers is the largest collection of Elvis, she says hers is the largest collection she's ever seen -- and she's seen a lot. Not only that, the wart is listed in the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records.

''It's definitely the most unique (collection). And I think I really am the only one who ever did their (art school graduate) thesis on him,'' she adds.

As for the transformation of the house, Mabe says her grandmother would love it -- even though she wasn't necessarily a worshipper of the king.

''I know she'd get a kick out of it,'' Mabe says in her sweet Southern twang. ''I know this isn't the best town for this, but I couldn't let the house go. And a lot of people have been here already.''

Mabe opened the house to visitors in May, but will host the grand opening Saturday in memory of Elvis' death (Aug. 16), complete with an Elvis impersonator. She'll also serve examples of Elvis' favorite cuisine: peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

She plans to host celebrations each year on the King's birthday, too. And for those die-hard Elvis fans who want to sleep amid all this memorabilia of Elvis, she's even working on a room to be a replica of Graceland's jungle room -- she'll call it a Bed and Elvis.

So far, even though she's open only on Fridays and Saturdays and even though she's planted herself in a tiny Georgia town, she's seen a number of visitors -- 28 last Saturday, alone. Who knows, with a collection this size, the Loudermilk Boarding House Museum just might end up rivaling Graceland.

But for now, Mabe's just happy to stay put with her Elvis.

''I've got a lot of bubble wrap if anyone needs it,'' she says with a laugh.

Julie Phillips Jordan can be reached at (706) 208-2221 or by e-mail at jphillips@onlineathens.com. Mailing address: One Press Place, Athens 30601.